gas plan. a press release says the proposal includes 19 potential sales off the coast of alaska, seven in the pacific region, 12 in the gulf of mexico, and nine in the atlantic region. congressman richard hudson, who represents north carolina's eighth district, tweeted -- and senator maria cantwell of washington state, the ranking member on the senate energy committee, sent the message -- >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. a 1979, c-span was created as

public service by america's cable television companies, and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. >> steve bannon and michael fury"s new book "fire and once again dominated the white house briefing with press secretary sarah sanders. this is about 20 minutes. ms. sanders: good afternoon. pleased to see the dow jones industrial average broke through 25,000 for the first time ever today. the president's economic agenda of lower taxes, less regulation, and economic opportunity for all is already paying off, and american family and workers are the big winners. with that in mind, we have a message from a special guess i would like to share with you. i will ask you to tune into the screens, and then i will continue from there. president trump: thank you for

being with us today. the historic tax cut i signed into law just two weeks ago before christmas is already delivering major economic gains. hundreds of thousands of americans are seeing larger paychecks, bigger bonuses, and higher pension contributions, and it is all because of the tax cuts and the tax reform, and i want to thank all of the companies that worked so hard to do it. workers at at&t, bank of america, comcast, southwest airlines, american airlines, and many other companies are receiving bonuses of $1000 or more. aflac and others are investing more in employees' 401ks. cvs announced it will hire 300,000 new workers. -- 3000 new workers. boeing, another great company, is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in employee training and infrastructure. more than 60 companies have announced they are raising wages, including many that have voluntarily raised their minimum

wage to $15 an hour, and i mean they did that voluntarily, which many politicians said could only be achieved by government mandates. investing in the american workers is the most important investment of business will make. i want to thank all of these companies for putting the tax savings to the best possible use by creating more jobs and higher wages for the american family. these great results are just the beginning. when the dreams of the american people are unleashed, there is nothing, absolutely nothing we can't achieve. we're going to make america great again, and it is happening a lot faster than anyone thought possible. thank you. ms. sanders: thank you, mr. president. as he said, this is only the beginning, and we are excited to see the economic growth and optimism continued to soar in 2018. earlier today, the president hosted republican senators to talk about responsible immigration reform. he reiterated our view that any

action on daca must come with action on the president's immigration reform principles which were released last year. these include a physical border wall on the southern border, interior enforcement, which means more ice and border patrol agents as well as a crackdown on sanctuary cities, and reforms to the legal immigration system, like ending chain migration and the visa lottery program in favor of a merit-based immigration system. next week the president is inviting a bipartisan group of senators to the white house to discuss the next step on responsible immigration reform and to continue that discussion. with that, i will take your questions. reporter: sarah, a follow-up on the steve bannon issue. did white house staff, including steve, have to sign nondisclosure agreements when they came to work at the white house? ms. sanders: there is an ethics agreement. beyond that i cannot get into additional details. reporter: does the president want to have steve's support for

antiestablishment political candidates in the midterm elections? ms. sanders: the president wants all americans' support. he hopes every american in this country wants to see us do bigger and better things. that is his focus. he is not going to single out the support from any one individual but he wants to bring everybody together to move this country forward. that is what he campaigned on and that is what we will continue to do the next seven years. reporter: the white house has said there were false statements in this book. the president's lawyers said there were libelous statements. could you give us a few examples of things that have been set in -- said in this book that are false that you would like to set , the record straight on? ms. sanders: i am not going to go through every single page of the book. but there are numerous examples of falsehoods that take place in the book. i will give you one, just because it is really easy, the fact that there was a claim that the president didn't know who john boehner was is pretty ridiculous, considered the majority of you have seen photos and, frankly, some of you have

tweeted out that the president not only knows him, but has played golf with him, tweeted about him. that is pretty simple and pretty basic. ages of employees, which would be super easy to fact-check, are wrong. there are numerous mistakes. but i am not going to waste my time or the country's time going page by page talking about a book that is complete fantasy and full of tabloid gossip, because it is bad, pathetic, and our focus is going to be on moving the country forward. john? reporter: thanks a lot, sarah. i read this letter sent by the -- sees and a set -- sees and desist letter sent by the president's lawyers to both michael wolff and the publisher of the book which seeks to stop the sale of his book. did the president's lawyers share with the president the idea that this is a prior restraint, and prior restraints are generally unconstitutional? ms. sanders: i'm not sure about specific details of the conversation between the

president and his personal attorney, but i would refer you to them for questions regarding that matter. reporter: does the president believe in the first amendment? does he believe in prior restraint such as the he is one contemplating here? ms. sanders: the president absolutely believes in the first amendment, but as we have said before, the president also believes in making sure that information is accurate before pushing it out as fact when it certainly and clearly is not. jordan? reporter: what is the president's reaction to the growing number of suggestions both in this book and the media that he is mentally unfit to serve as president? ms. sanders: the same way we have when it has been asked before, that it is disgraceful and laughable. if he was unfit, he probably wouldn't be sitting there, he wouldn't have defeated the most qualified group of candidates the republican party has ever seen. this is an incredibly strong and good leader. that is why we have had such a successful 2017 and why we are going to continue to do great

things as we move forward and in this administration. john? reporter: thank you, sarah. two questions. first, the book repeatedly says that candidate trump, his family, and the top officials of the campaign did not believe he would be elected, it was the farthest from their minds. you said yesterday you believe in this campaign and felt he would win. can you name anyone else who said at the time, on the eve of the election, that they felt he would win, did the president himself believe he would not win? ms. sanders: look, as we have stated many times before, go back and look at some of the interviews, specifically kellyanne conway. she did several leading up to the election saying that the president can win and would win. there were officials who echoed those same sentiments. the president, the first lady, his family, they would not have put themselves through the process if they did not believe he could win and did not want to

win. this is something they were very committed to and have been committed to since taking office and will continue to do so over the next seven years. it is absolutely laughable to think that somebody like this president would run for office with the purpose of losing. if you guys know anything, you know that donald trump is a winner, and he is not going to do something with the purpose of not coming out on top and not coming out as a winner. that is one of the most ridiculous things i think the claims in the book. reporter: my other question is, tomorrow, can we expect a major personnel change? i particularly asked, is gary cohen owing to stay where he is? ms. sanders: i have no reason to know of any personal change whatsoever. gary has stated he is committed to being here. we have just come off a very successful win on the tax cut and reform package, which gary was one of the key leaders of

that effort, and we are moving full force ahead to 2018 to make sure we get a lot accomplished. francesca. reporter: thank you, sarah. i want to follow up on something you said yesterday. the last time the president spoke to steve bannon was early december. today the president said he does not talk to steve bannon. how much were they in contact when they were in the white house? also, how close were they when they were in the white house? one of the claims in the book is he frequently dined with mr. bannon unless he was in bed. ms. sanders: the book also said he had been sidelined by april, which goes further to indicate that he has very little credibility to give much information, particularly after that point, which most of the book is based after that time frame. again, this book is mistake after mistake after mistake -- reporter: were they not close by the time he left -- ms. sanders: i am not aware that they were ever particularly close. they've spoken a few times since

he left the white house, but it is not like they were regularly scheduled calls and certainly no meetings between the two of them. fred? reporter: thank you, sarah. regarding the voting commission and the president's tweet to follow that. does the president favor a national voter id? ms. sanders: look, we will continue to review the best way forward. just because the election commission is no longer in existence, we will send the preliminary findings from the commission to the department of homeland security and make determinations on the best way forward from that point. reporter: why dhs instead of doj, which would seem to be more of an investigative body? ms. sanders: that was the agency best determined by the administration, and we are moving forward and letting them take over the process. reporter: two questions. first, does president trump see marijuana as a state issue or a federal issue?

ms. sanders: the president believes in enforcing federal law. that is his top priority. that is regardless of what the topic is, whether it is marijuana or immigration. the president believes we should enforce federal law. the move the department of justice has made which i guess , is what you are referencing, gives prosecutors the tools to take on large-scale distributors and enforced federal law. the president's position has not changed but he strongly believes we have to enforce federal law. reporter: the meeting this afternoon with the rnc chairwoman, can you imagine they will be discussing a potential run by mitt romney in utah? is this something the president would like to discuss with mitt romney's niece? ms. sanders: like you said, i'm not going to get ahead of a meeting that has not taken place and try to guess what may be discussed. maybe we can follow up with that question at a later time. ashley. reporter: an incredibly high bar for a public figure to win a libel case.

a public figure especially like the president. can you explain why the president thinks it is an appropriate use of attention and resources to marshal his west wing and his legal team against the author and publisher? ms. sanders: in terms of a legal argument, i would refer you to the president's attorneys. but in terms of the merits, i don't think we have been tiptoeing around our feelings about this. it is completely tabloid gossip full of false and fraudulent claims, and i would refer you to the president's attorneys on what that looks like in the court of law. noah -- no, i'm sorry. brain is slow today. reporter: thank you, sarah. will the president go to court to stop the publication of this book? ms. sanders: again, that is something i will refer you to the president's attorneys, but our position is very clear, we think it is full of false and fake information. reporter: the book will be published on tuesday. how far is the president willing

to go to prevent the book from being published? ms. sanders: he certainly believes it shouldn't be, but in terms of the legal process, i would have to refer you to his legal team. reporter: i know we are talking a lot about steve bannon, but he is not the only person quoted in the book. katie walsh, who worked for this white house, was quoted on the record extensively. ms. sanders: she has also put out a statement denying the quotes attributed to her. reporter: is there any action being taken by the white house against these individuals, outreach to these individuals who are quoted to verify whether in fact they made these statements are not? there are reports that she is , there are implications for her, potentially being pushed out of groups that support the president from the outside. ms. sanders: i'm not aware of any specific action being taken. i know she has said the quotes were not attributed to her, as have many other people that have been quoted in this book. reporter: there will be implications --

ms. sanders: absolutely, particularly people like secretary mnuchin, who has pushed back on this, and several others. you also have to look at this author's track record, in which he has had a real problem with this in the past, and i think that is something that is the foundation for us to make these make the assumption that this is definitely this is a practice , that he is used to doing. reporter: legal action against any of those individuals? ms. sanders: not that i'm aware of at the time. kevin? >> just a couple. i want to ask you broadly, what is your level of exhaustion when you have to have this issue out there when there are other issues you are trying to get to and communicate to the american people? how do you balance that? did you speak to the president specifically about what has been said or released about this? ms. sanders: i have spoken to the president about some of the specifics that have come up.

in terms of the level of exhaustion, i am less concerned with my exhaustion as i am with the people of this country who frankly probably could care less about a book full of lies and would really like to hear more about a booming economy, the crushing of isis, all of the great things happening in this country, or all of the big problems we are focused on tackling. i don't think they really care about some trash that an author that nobody had ever heard of until today, for a fired employee, wants to peddle. the focus of our administration is moving this country forward, and hopefully everyone will join us in that effort, focus on the policy components instead of some of the ridiculous lies we have to spend all of our time in here focused on. reporter: is it your impression that something will be done vis-a-vis the wall, and there will be a grand announcement of some sort that the president would like to make on that? ms. sanders: we would like to make sure we have responsible immigration reform.

we would like to have a deal asre we have daca, as well those priorities and principles met,id out last year and that is the reason the president is inviting members from the democrat party next week, to see if we can have the discussion and move the ball forward. reporter: as a candidate, president trump threatened 20 lawsuits and followed through with two of them. why should steve bannon and michael wolff be concerned? ms. sanders: regardless of whether there is a lawsuit, they should be concerned about peddling fake stories, about putting out information that is not true, about the fact we are spending all our time here focused on talking about this instead of things people in this country care about. i think that is a really sad process, and i think that should be everyone's concern. reporter: is the president committed to following through with these lawsuits? ms. sanders: you would have to talk to his attorneys. whether or not that moves forward, what that looks like.

reporter: doesn't this run the risk of increasing book sales, drawing more attention? ms. sanders: i think you guys are the ones drawing more attention. every question basically i have been asked has to do with that. it's not like i came out here and read excerpts from the book. i don't think i can be responsible for the questions that you asked. in fact, if i tried to do that, i would certainly be attacked for trying to -- i did that once, and it did not go well. the allegations in this book -- ms. sanders: this is about the security and integrity of technology systems at the white house. this is something that has been in process, in the works for six months, and we were making sure that all of the information and the ability for the government phones to increase their ability for other application, so that we can comply with presidential records act.

that was a big piece of making sure that this was done. now that that process is completed, we can move forward, and now start next week. reporter: how would you describe the president's relationship with the mercer family. how would you describe that? ms. sanders: i believe it is good. i have not heard otherwise, but i am not aware of anything specific. reporter: you were eager to call on espn2 fire one of its sportscasters for criticizing president trump. ms. sanders: it was not just criticizing him. reporter: should breitbart part ways with steve bannon after his comments in the book? ms. sanders: i certainly think it is something they should look at. reporter: i would like to drill in on something peter asked yesterday. i profess my ignorance in this. ms. sanders: you said it, not me. if you want to call yourself ignorant, i'm not going to argue. reporter: i am. so, next week when he goes to his physical, are there mental

acuity tests that go along with that or is it purely physical in nature? ms. sanders: we will discuss. when i announced he would be doing a physical, we will have a readout of that after it is completed and will let you know. reporter: second question, yesterday you said steve bannon was entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts. this administration has said on many occasions they are entitled to alternative facts. how is that different with steve bannon? ms. sanders: this administration has not said on numerous aresions that there alternative facts. i know there was one reference, in which they were saying basically there's two sides to the story. that's very different from completely false information and opinion. reporter: the president said today steve bannon changed his tune about him last night. does the president feel the cease and desist letter had the desired effect on steve bannon? ms. sanders: i am not sure what

aspect made him change his tune, what i think there was certainly a difference in some of the language that he used for this book versus the language he used last night. reporter: a question on oil drilling, please. rick scott, the governor of florida, is expressing concerns about the administration's offshore drilling plan which would allow drilling in most coastal waters. can the president afford to cross this important political ally, and what do you plan to say to governor scott? ms. sanders: our goal is not to cross governor scott. we have a great relationship with him. working withnue him on a number of issues. just because we may differ on issues from time to time doesn't mean we cannot still have an incredible he strong and good relationship. we will continue those conversations with him, and hopefully i'll come to agreement. i'll take one last question. reporter: you were calling the michael wolff book a book full of lies. giveidn't this white house

michael wolff all the access he wanted? ms. sanders: absolutely not. in fact, there are probably more than 30 requests for access to information from michael wolff that were repeatedly denied, including within that at least two dozen requests of him asking to have an interview with the president, which he never did. he never discussed this book with the president, and to me that would be the most important voice you could have if you are looking to write a book about an individual, to have some time with him. he never did. he was repeatedly denied that, i think because we saw him for what he was, and there was no reason for us to waste the president of the united states's time. reporter: should the letter from the president's lawyers aimed at steve bannon and michael wolff be interpreted as a threat from the united states government, from this administration, to not publish this book? ms. sanders: it is not from the

united states government. it is from the president's personal attorney, and i think it is very clear what its purpose is. there is nothing beyond that. if you have specifics, i would refer you to the president's attorney. thanks so much, guys. >> ♪ >> c-span's "washington journal" live every day with policy issues that impact you. friday morning, the prospects for entitlement reform, which include medicare, medicaid, and welfare programs. a political reporter will join us. then a roundtable on entitlement reform. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal live at 7:00 eastern on friday morning. join the discussion. ♪ on c-span, the

tiebreaker in a virginia statehouse race. republicans and democrats outlined their agenda for 2018. "the washington journal" looks at the trump administration and the infrastructure proposal. we start in richmond where the virginia board of elections met today to determine the winner of the state's fourth house of house delegate seats. the election ended in a tie. a 1705 virginia law, tied races are decided by picking the name at random.